GOOD FRIDAY EDITION -- WHY THERE ARE SO FEW POLLS IN SENATE RACES -- HOUSE DEMS BEGIN TRIAGE -- THE FOX AT THE WHITE HOUSE: Josh Earnest takes a late-night pic -- BEN CHANG b'day -- OSCAR BURTON is 3

Text Size

FIRST LOOK – Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) talks Mark Strassmann on “CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood”: “‘A Fighting Chance,’ Warren’s 10th book [out Tue.], is described as a plea for economic fairness wrapped inside her own life story. ‘I’m not running for president,’ Warren tells Strassmann. ‘Let me be clear about this book. This is my life’s work. For more than 25 years now, I’ve been working on trying to sound the alarm on what’s happening to America’s middle class. … I am not running for president … You can ask lots of different ways, but I wrote this book because I can’t wait any longer. It’s written out of gratitude for my start and the opportunities that America built for me, and how I think that’s what we’ve got to do again.’”

TWEET DU JOUR -- ?@nickconfessore: “If you want a vision of the future, imagine my children covering the Clinton and Bush children--forever.”

--CHELSEA HOPES TO HAVE MORE THAN 1 – Alex Burns: “The announcement came … at the end of a Clinton Foundation-sponsored event in Manhattan. Chelsea Clinton [said] she and her husband, Marc Mezvinsky, ‘are very excited that we have our first child arriving later this year. … I certainly feel all the better – whether it’s a girl or a boy – that she or he will grow up in a world so full of so many strong young female leaders … I just hope that I will be as good a mom to my child, and hopefully children, as my mom was to me.” http://goo.gl/L2B1lP

AXELROD (Labour Party) v. MESSINA (Conservative Party) in BRITAIN’S MAY 2015 ELECTION -- Guardian political editor Patrick Wintour: “David Axelrod has been given the title of senior strategic adviser and told the Guardian that Labour's political and economic analysis was similar to the central themes … in Obama's … re-election campaign. The political guru said that he had signed up ‘because I have had some long conversations with Ed Miliband [leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party] over the course of the past year and it was less about politics, and more about this issue of how in the 21st century you create healthy economies in which opportunity is broadly available, and people can stay ahead of the cost of living’. …

“It … pits him against a former Obama colleague, Jim Messina, who has been hired by [Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader] David Cameron. Axelrod was reluctant to discuss Messina, except to promise he had the capacity to surprise.” http://goo.gl/Sptyqo

PRESIDENT OBAMA, in the briefing room at 3:40 p.m., carried live on network special reports: “[T]his thing is working. … [T]he repeal debate is and should be over.”

Q from POLITICO’s Isaac Dovere: “[D]o you think it's time for Democrats to start campaigning loudly and positively on the benefits of Obamacare? … ”

OBAMA, after answering Isaac’s Ukraine question: “[W]e’ve been having a political fight about this for five years. We need to move on to something else. … I think that Democrats should forcefully defend, and be proud of the … millions of people … we’re helping because of something we did. I don’t think we should apologize for it, and I don’t think we should be defensive about it. I think there is a strong, good, right story to tell. …

“[W]hat I intend to talk about is what the American people are interested in hearing: Our plans for putting people back to work; our plans for making sure our economy continues to innovate … [I]f Republicans want to spend all their time talking about repealing a law that’s working, that’s their business. I think what Democrats should do is not be defensive, but we need to move on and focus on other things that are really important to the American people right now.”

--HOW IT’S PLAYING: WSJ, top of page, “Obama Toughens Health Law Talk” … NYT col. 5, “Signups Exceed Obama’s Goal For Health Act: A Total of 8 Million – Young Adults Enroll” … WashPost, at fold, “Obama hails 8 million enrollees for health insurance: He says Democrats should take pride in face of GOP attacks” … L.A. Times 2-col. lead, “Obamacare enrollments top 8 million: With sign-ups well past projections, the president declares the repeal debate ‘over.’”

D.C./N.Y. INTRIGUE -- “U.S. Said to Warn Money Managers of More Russia Sanctions,” by Bloomberg’s Christopher Condon: “Officials from the Treasury Department and the National Security Council met in Washington with mutual-fund and hedge-fund managers … Their comments sent a message that more sanctions are on the way and that investors, if they were concerned about the impact, should manage that risk … The meeting … left managers grappling with the question of whether the government intended to follow through, or was trying to trigger asset sales through the threat of sanctions.” http://goo.gl/zL3JBA

CAMPUS CRITTERS -- WSJ A1 A-Hed column: “Another Wily Gatecrasher Sneaks Into the White House: Elusive Red Fox Marked His Territory During Government Shutdown; Rose Garden Stroll,” by Carol E. Lee: “There's a new guest at the White House. ... [I]n cutthroat Washington fashion, he saw weakness and took advantage. Now he rests and plays uninhibited at the seat of power. … The little red fox, who hasn't been named, turned up on the White House grounds in the weeks before the government shutdown in October. After many White House groundskeepers were furloughed, the fox settled in. Months later, the furry little conundrum has left officials who sort through some of the world's most complex challenges scratching their heads. … He graduated to tripping alarms in the middle of the night, napping wherever he pleases and generally living the high life on a campus overseen by dozens of highly trained Secret Service agents.

“Josh Earnest, [the [principal] deputy White House press secretary, …was leaving the West Wing from a side entrance [one night late last fall] onto a closed street when he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. ‘I thought it was a cat … But then as I focused on it, it was clear it was much bigger than a cat. … I was like, “Oh I should take a picture. This is crazy. There is a fox at the White House”’ … Danielle Crutchfield, the White House director of scheduling and advance, … was leaving the White House one evening late last summer when she saw the fox snoozing in the bushes. She got about 10 feet from him and snapped a photo. ‘It just woke up and looked at me.’” http://goo.gl/hIWrbf

TOP TALKER – “As polls vanish, so do clues about 2014,” by Steven Shepard, editor of POLITICO’s new Campaign Pro: “The last reliable nonpartisan poll on the [Arkansas Senate] race was conducted in October … Good polling is becoming increasingly scarce, walloped by shrinking newsroom budgets and the soaring costs of conducting surveys. … FiveThirtyEight … launched with a clarion call: ‘Somebody Poll a Senate Race.’ … Over a 15-year period, the completion rate for Pew’s pollsters … fell from 36 percent in 1997 to just 9 percent in 2012.

“The main reason is the migration to cellphones. It’s more expensive and time-consuming to call cellphones because they cannot be dialed by a computer, per FCC regulations. … Cash-strapped news outlets are increasingly turning to less-expensive survey methods — like automated-phone and Internet polling … And campaigns and partisan groups are more than happy to fill the void and constant news cycle with numbers that are often more favorable toward their candidate.” Free to Proshttp://goo.gl/uBu38Y

** A message from TransCanada: The TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline will create thousands of American jobs. With increased domestic production, it can eliminate America’s reliance on unfriendly, foreign energy within 10 years. All with lower greenhouse gas emissions than alternative modes of transport. It’s right for America. Learn more at Keystone-XL.com. **

CLICK DU JOUR – “The Twitter glossary” in Twitter’s Help Center: “HT or h/t: Usually means ‘hat tip.’ A way of acknowledging the person who originally shared the content being tweeted, such as a link to an article or video. … RLRT: ‘Real Life Retweet’ is another way of saying OH (‘overheard’). Used to quote something a person said in ‘real life.’” (h/t BuzzFeed)

SHRINKING MAP: MANY HOUSE DEM CHALLENGERS ON THEIR OWN -- “House Dems’ midterm strategy: Triage,” by Alex Isenstadt: “House Democrats, battered by Koch brothers ads and facing a grim outlook for the midterms, are … shoring up imperiled incumbents and only the most promising challengers, but most likely leaving some of the party’s upstart hopefuls to fend for themselves. The aim of the strategy … is a tacit acknowledgement of the ominous political environment Democrats are up against this year. The goal is to stop Republicans from padding their 17-seat edge and keep the party within striking distance of the majority in 2016, a presidential election year that could well be more favorable to Democrats. …

“Operatives working with Democratic groups say they’ve been tasked with examining how much damage incumbents have incurred from a wave of attacks funded by Americans for Prosperity, a Koch brothers-funded outfit. They’ve been conducting polling much earlier … than they initially anticipated. … The focus on protecting incumbents is fueling anxiety among Democratic challengers that they won’t receive campaign resources from the national party. … ‘There’s just this knowledge that it’s a shrinking map,’ said a campaign manager for a Democratic candidate running in one of the nation’s most closely watched House races. …

“After badgering the DCCC for months, … one vulnerable member finally received the committee’s promise of field support following the party’s loss in last month’s special election in Florida’s 13th District. ‘It lit a fire under them,’ an aide to the vulnerable member said of the special election. ‘They should hunker down, minimize their losses, and live to fight another day.’ … Many Democrats argue that 2014 is shaping up to be very different from the last midterm [2010], when the party lost 63 seats and the House majority. … Democrats were totally relegated to playing defense; this year offers them some solid offensive prospects.” http://goo.gl/YNI267

--CNN’s “State of the Union”: Sean Spicer, Mo Elleithee, and Stu Rothenberg on Senate races, Sen. John Walsh (D-Mont., the first Iraq combat vet in the Senate) and Tom Tarantino of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, on veteran suicide. Plus the Iraqi ambassador to the U.S., running the Boston Marathon in a show of support

--“Meet the Press”: Chuck Todd, David Brooks, Radhika Jones of TIME, David Shribman and Jo Becker, author of “Forcing the Spring”

WASHINGTON, INC. – “Facebook plays offense in D.C. for new feature,” Alex Byers: “The public first learned Thursday about Nearby Friends, which lets Facebook users who turn on the feature see in real-time how close they are physically to their online compatriots. But some in D.C. got an early rundown of the company’s major launch. … ‘We want people to understand how our service works and what we’re doing to protect the people who use Facebook so we meet regularly — as we did in this case — with policymakers, regulators and other interested parties to keep them updated,’ Facebook spokeswoman Jodi Seth said. … Weeks previously, the firm held a meeting with an array of privacy advocates to get input on the product. Some tweaks were made based on feedback from that group, three privacy advocates said.

“‘They’ve done a pretty good job of saying, “Here are some things we’re thinking about,” and actually take feedback too,’ said Justin Brookman, director of consumer privacy at the Center for Democracy and Technology. Proactive outreach on the part of Facebook … underscores the reality that with one of the Internet’s largest troves of user data, the company is always going to get a watchful eye from policymakers. … In building Nearby Friends — which … will roll out to iOS and Android devices in the United States in the coming weeks — the firm clearly hoped to pre-empt privacy questions. The feature is turned off by default …

“With Nearby Friends turned on, Facebook will repeatedly collect the user’s location, even when he or she isn’t using the app … Facebook says it won’t use that data to better target advertisements, at least right now, but it will give the company a better picture of where users spend most of their time. Facebook will give users the ability to delete their location data from Facebook servers at any time — but it will stay with the company indefinitely unless users actively choose to purge it.” http://goo.gl/LE2XlI

HAPPENING TODAY, from AP: “U.S. stock, bond and commodities trading will be closed … in observance of Good Friday. … BOSTON MARATHON BOMBING-MIT OFFICER - College ceremony for slain officer … STATE UNEMPLOYMENT - Government reports on state unemployment rates for March; 10 a.m. … CLINTON DOCUMENTS - Documents scheduled to be released at 1 p.m. … SPACE STATION - SpaceX capsule launch of supplies to space station scheduled for 3:25 p.m.”

MEDIAWATCH: “FOX News has re-signed Chris Wallace to a new multi-year deal where he will continue as the anchor and moderator of FOX News Sunday, announced Roger Ailes, Chairman and CEO of the network. 2014 marks Wallace’s 50th year in the broadcasting industry since embarking on his television career as a gofer for Walter Cronkite at the 1964 Republican National Convention when he was 16 years old. … Prior to FOX, Wallace worked at ABC News for 14 years … Before ABC News, he was with NBC News where he served as the chief White House correspondent from 1982-1989. Wallace also anchored Meet the Press from 1987-1988 and anchored the Sunday edition of NBC Nightly News from 1982-1984 and 1986-1987. He joined NBC as a reporter with WNBC-TV in New York City in 1975.”

** A message from TransCanada: Is the TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline right for America? Well studies show that the pipeline will create thousands of high quality construction, manufacturing and spin-off jobs in local U.S. communities. In all, the project could add $20 billion to the U.S. economy. And, along with increased domestic energy production, this Canadian oil can eliminate America’s reliance on unreliable and unfriendly foreign energy sources within 10 years.

And the U.S. State Department reports that the pipeline will actually produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions than alternative modes of transport. Oil from a safe reliable neighbor that can be used here in America. The TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline is right for America. Let’s get it done. Learn more at Keystone-XL.com. **